Helping a world of unstoppable diversity. (._.)

... Or, a virtual world, that is. (>_<)

So... Emeraldgate seems to be over. The client has mostly been blacklisted, the "bad" devs banned, and everyone is looking for the next big shiny. Most people don't want to use the V2 client because, to them, it's too great a departure from the interface they've been used to for 2, 3, 4, 7 years. So, what's the former 'Emerald' flock to do? (O.o)

Mind you... That's a pretty big darned flock. (=_=)

At this moment Linden Lab's Third Party Viewer Directory list has 13 clients of varying types. The most visible and shiny being Phoenix, Emergence, Kirsten's, Ascent, and Imprudence. All of which have VERY different user interfaces! DX

From the approach of 'sticking to V1-4life!!' to 'making V2 my way'... From client to client; buttons, menus, and options are all over the place! In addition, most of these clients are still open beta or hobby projects. So they're not totally stable, not all features work 100%, some features are flat-out missing, and worst of all... providing help in Second Life is mired in the new complexity this diversity introduces. (>_<)

As someone who likes to be knowledge and helpful, I'd often have the top 2 or 3 clients installed on my computer and keep up with the updates as they came out... Usually spending a day on each then going back to my personal favorite until someone has a major update. (^_^)

That was easy back in the days of Cool Viewer, Emerald, Imprudence, and LL's offering. The UIs were generally equal, knowing each client meant knowing the LL base functions plus whatever the TPV devs added. Problems would filter down and I'd just have to take note of what I hear from frustrated users to come up with solutions for each client. (^_^)

But now... DX

LL's V2 UI is a giant departure from what people have experienced for the past 7 years. Mind you, it's a departure I appreciate. It's more of a "computer" UI to me, which I can absorb and adopt easily as opposed to the "video game" UI that I struggled in with the V1 clients. Still... It's a departure and not all TPV devs have utilized it. For the ones who have, it often gets heavily modified. (._.)

And, that's where the problem comes in with the TPV clients. They're modding like crazy. So, when it comes time to provide help...

[2010/09/05 14:01] ** **: where is "Disable Camera Constrains" in Imprudence viewer?

[2010/09/11 18:41] ** **: I am using snowglobe. how do I manage these chat screens.. there annoying

[2010/09/11 18:42] ** **: imprudence has a different font

[2010/09/11 18:42] ** **: Yeah, it needs some tweaks, which is why I was on Kirstens, but that kept crashing on me.

[2010/09/11 18:52] ** **: someone told me there is a spell checker in Imprudence viewer..how the eff do u turn it on

[2010/09/11 20:45] ** **: Blech. By default, Imprudence still tries to save inventory scripts as LSO. Whyyyyyy. ._.

[2010/09/11 20:45] Imnotgoing Sideways: Mono makes teleporting evil. (._.)

[2010/09/11 20:59] ** **: I was just talking to my mom and wondering why phoenix debug menu wont stop my typin


.... And I have NO BLOODY CLUE how to respond to these things. I like to help, people come to me for assistance, but I just can't seem to keep up with the influx of different clients in SL. (._.)

As a result, much of last night's Q&A event was more a round-table of us trying to find who learned what on which client and if it addresses the issues that another person has. No two people were in the same version of the same TPV and all we could do was simply try our darndest to provide as complete a solution as possible. (._.)

Even for my building classes... Stupid silly things like "Select Texture" being renamed "Select Face" is enough to suck precious minutes from the lesson so that the diverse mix&match user base can proceed. (._.)

What's a helper and educator to do? Add disclaimers to events for which clients are supported for each lesson? Hope to bloody'ek that LL works with the TPV devs in collaboration and come up with a reasonable compromise in UI standardization? (O.o)

It's work. SL is supposed to be fun. Meh... I'm going inworld to build myself a micro avatar. I'll be using V2 due to it being my personal favorite UI. Don't mind me. (._.)

Anatomy of an Immy. =^-^=

I've been LOLing lately at all the places where I'm seeing my name used as though I'm a beast of lore. "Imnot" here, "ING" there, "Immy" everywhere. It's like watching a bunch of wrinkly curmudgeons telling stories about Bigfoot, Nessie, Jaws, or whatever. It's silly. (^_^)

Anyway... My blog, my rules. Let's talk about me. I'm so vain. =^-^=


Little Immy - March 2008

I started SL as a kid AV. Quite antisocial, in fact. One thing I sure as heck didn't want was to be in the virtual gene pool of the online dating/sex scene. Making myself a creepy little crud really helped work that out... To a limit. (O.o)

I STILL ran into people who would IM me with less than savory requests. And, I was all like "Woah! Dude! DX" most of the time. So, back then, I spelled it out in my profile. I introduced myself, left a messages telling people to NOT IM me with sexual requests, even threatening to shout them to open chat. Finally closing my profile with "Please call me 'Immy' so that I know you've read my profile. (^_^)". Not bad, no? No only an indicator that I got my preemptive message across, but, a nickname was born. =^-^=



So, yes, for quite a while I was a kid avatar. It was fun. Though, I was quite imp-ish and sometimes very un-kid-like most of the time. I was mostly floating between trying pass as a kid, a vampire, a loli-imp, a neko, or whatever my mindset was at the time. Regardless, no matter what I was, I was "me". (^_^)

I've since sprouted up and gone adult now. Along this whole time I've been a regular at the Hanja Welcome area, Waterhead, NCI, and various other places. I like to diversify. I hop around from PG sandboxes to Adult dollification sims and everything in between. (^_^)

One thing that's been consistent to my nature is helping. I was always the kid in class who would put things down to help someone else reach a better understanding of what they are trying to accomplish. So, it's only natural that I become a helper. It started when I found a pile of green dots on the map in a PG sim. I dove in to find this funny little place called New Citizens Inc. One of my Hanja friends was there, so I said "Hi" and chatted up the place for a while. Over time, I got to better know people and even ran into the first person to ever chat with me in SL... An active NCI officer at the time who I had shoo'd away because I wasn't really chatting with anyone back then. (>_<)

Anyway... The group was fun and I became a regular. I started getting used to the idea of being able to build and script on the land. I started entering contests. I started having serious fun. Over time, through what I hope was merit of my actions, I was assigned the role of a helper. (^_^)

I really enjoyed it. Helping comes naturally to me. It's how I get my thrill. I can't really explain it. I guess it's the pride. I like the feeling I get when I've given a person one more thing than they didn't know before. I won't even say I'm generous. I can't say that generosity is my motivation. It's just the thrill of spreading information. I'm an information glut and a showoff, so, I like to spout all day about information I have. (^_^)

At one point, I was finally past my minimum time required to sign up for Second Life Mentors and I dove in to it. The application process took a long time and the meetings, shadowing, and final acceptance was very rewarding. Again, this gave me more opportunity to help. I really didn't have to change any habits and I rarely wore the tag, but, it was nice to have the extra resources available at my disposal. Mentor group chat was a great place to take baffling questions. Access to Help Island was a fun way to pass the time assisting people for their first minutes inworld. It was a blast. =^-^=

Between infohubs, NCI, and Help Island, I sure as heck had a full plate and it was full of things I liked. In between and intermingled with my duties, I had my friends. From the Welcome are mobs, to the drones at The Doll Works, to the nutcase /b/tards of Woodbury, to my own close and personal friends... SL always had something to offer for my time spent inworld. (^_^)

Then I faced a griefing. To me, THIS was a genuine griefing. Not silly cubes and particles. I got falsely Abuse Reported by a W-hat goon for (Sexual)ageplay. Mind you, I was in a PG (adult robot) avatar, on PG land, in a PG event, and building a PG project for the event. What part of anything I was doing had a chance of being misconstrued as (sexual)ageplay, I'll never know. (>_<)

Aparently, neither will Linden Lab. After filing a ticket on the suspension, I got a response clearning my record of the event and apologising for the error. That was a good thing. (^_^) In the process, I was able to point out the events that lead up to my AR and even the presumed name of the avatar that reported me. From that, the NCI community and senior land officer offered me the opportunity to become a Land Officer of the group. I accepted the poisition and continued to do my best to keep the sandboxes clean and safe. At the same time, making a mess of my own, much to the pleasure of the crowd of regulars. (^_^)

To date, that's what I continue to be. SL is supposed to be fun and I'm finding all of my facets of fun in different places all over SL. While I will be losing my Mentor tag in just a couple weeks, I will still mentor on my own terms. The existing fringe mentor chat groups are still fine resources for information and NCI still remains the number one location and group for getting exactly what you need to adjust to this funny little virtual world. (^_^)y

Welcome back, Tat! =^-^=

Got a little good news / bad news from the NCI front. (^_^)

Bad news: Gramma Fiddlesticks has stepped down from her position in NCI. These past couple months have surely been stressful for her. I can imagine; combining the turmoil of recent events, managing the people that make the group run, and dealing with the people who have a thing or two to say about how NCI 'should' be run. (>_<)

She's been great. Having taken on a position she didn't want in order to try and maintain the stability that makes NCI so great. And really sacrificing a large chunk of her life to serve the new resident of Second Life. In addition, she often offered me a shoulder to cry on for my own troubled times when I was being bombarded with slander and hate mail to the point where I was willing to blame myself for situations I had completely no control over. (T_T)

Frankly, that made her the best person for the job, in my eyes. Kind, caring, and willing to serve. She was the right person, in the right place, at the right time to keep the NCI community afloat since the events of August. She is still a friend, and a great one. Her role in NCI will be missed. (T_T)

Good news: Her replacement is Tateru Nino. Having come out of "retirement"... or "sabbatical"... which ever word you chose... She's now taking the executive reins. I've chatted with her a couple times and have been a frequent reader of her blogs. She has been in NCI from all the way back when Brace Coral was running the show. From what I have seen, she is just as trustworthy and hard working as anyone we've had. I fully support her return and hope to become a friend of her's as time goes by. =^-^=

At the same time, a few coordinating roles have been revised and filled with new people in order to give Gramma a break. It's not so much a re-organization as it's simply filling roles to keep things in motion. All in all, NCI is still strong and continues to be the best new resident support organization SL has ever had. (^_^)

For more, read up on Tateru's blog pose here: Everything old is new again. (^_^)y

NCI's policy on volunteer and staff group associations

NCI's current standing policy. Not in my own words:

http://nci-sl.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=7

It has been decided that NCI will continue its tradition of being inclusive and of dealing with individuals on a case-by-case basis. NCI is not the SL police department, nor do we have authority over the internet or real life. We have authority only on our land.

Membership in NCI's "official" ranks will be handled in the same way that we handle everything in what we do: case by case. Person by person. Groups are comprised of individuals. We will not carry a prejudice toward groups as a whole, we will deal person by person. This is how we help: person by person. One at a time evaluating their needs, and acting accordingly. This is how we hire: Person by person. One at a time, evaluating their strengths, weaknesses, character and behaviour. This is the way of NCI.

NCI hires from *within* the ranks. That means that you have to have been helping freely for some time before you are ever invited to become a helper by someone who has long experience in dealing with newbies and the many character types that come though our very public space. We watch, observe, listen, and learn. We assess their temperament, skills, communication style and overall attitudes and behaviour. If an individual is proposed as a potential helper by a current Land Officer, we consult, deliberate then finally make a decision en group.

One cannot apply to NCI for a position; people are invited, based on long experience and first hand observation of the individual. People who grief, simply don't make it to the ranks. Griefing is counter to NCI culture. An individual who has been observed, recorded or strongly evidenced to be a griefer will simply not be invited, regardless of what group zie may or may not belong to. This has the added advantage of weeding out bad apples regardless of the group they belong to.

It's long been NCI's policy and culture to deal with the individual, rather than by group. It's my understanding that the policy was stated as if an individual belong to a known griefer group they may not simultaneously occupy an official position at NCI. You may play and hang out with us, but not be a helper, LO or BoD. They either leave NCI or the other group. Some felt that was in conflict with dealing with people one by one, case by case, as well as being a less effective strategy for keeping our lands peaceful and our membership secure. Some of our officers/helpers/regulars also associate with some Woodbury members. This brought it from a theoretical issue, to a practical one.

(^_^)y

"Fun" Show&Tell event last night...

I've been substituting for the Sunday night Show&Tell events for a few weeks now. For the host, it's a very active event. While you're seeing an avatar just standing there, what's going on in the background is someone working in Excel, Photoshop, SL IMs, group chats, and trying to time manage each presenter to prevent the event itself from becoming an endless wait for the next question. (>_<)

Then, you get what I got last night. A one, McLickingAlot Ying, decided it would be fun to particle, sound, and chat spam the event. He was orbiting guests and presenters and pretty much simply causing a ruckus. In any other NCI location, he could have been easily dealt with via Banlink or a classroom security orb. But, none of those resources were available. I was basically left requesting an estate ban on the guy in the Land Holdings group. I pretty much got it about half way through the event. (^_^)

None the less, the event went on all the way to the end and we saw some impressive items. =^-^=

Still, I can see that I've developed no fan club due to recent events. One person in particular (maybe two) decided that the event should be turned into a Q&A session over why the event was like the "Good old, more innocent times" and how the event and crowd were 'influenced' by Woodbury. Even taking a snipe at my promotion of the NCI mall by asking how many items for sale were from "Real people and not WU goons". (=_=)

Well... The event was hosted entirely by me, and each presenter was selected simply on the basis that they IMed me and were more than 90 days inworld. In addition, the mall has been managed entirely by me and each seller was selected simply on the basis that tney IMed me and were under 120 days inworld. Spewing such conspiracy theories otherwise turns out to be a grand way to erode your perceived integrity. (=_=)

So, in spite of spammings, orbitings, detractors, and the general madness of what it is to be griefed in SL... It was a pretty darned good show. (^_^)y

Let me lernz you stuff! XD

About a week or so ago my favorite group (NCI) had announced that there were some educator openings and I was like thinking... Okay, I'm a Helper.... Hmmmm, I'm a Mentor.... Hmmm, I've been wanting to teach. So I totally went for it! XD \(^o^)/

Now, check this out... I was accepted! And I start Thursday at 6pm. I'll be teaching two classes, one every other week. This week is Flexi&Light... Two really killer prim properties and wonderful sources of lag! (^_^)y Next week will be One Prim Wonders... It's a way to deal with crazy prim limits if you got only a little space on your land. I can totally feel for that since my only land is a 512 parcel and I gotta make the most of the 117 prims I'm allowed. (^_^)y

So, that's it... I had something to say today... I've been in the middle of my ups and downs lately, and this is definitely an up for me. I wish I could say the same about the rest.... I'm such an emotard. (T_T) Don't worry... I'm still as buggy as ever and nowz I'm a teacher! XD

Hooooooo! \(^o^)/